Volume 18 Issue 7, July 2023

Increasing the capacity of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an effective strategy to enhance food security while simultaneously reducing the carbon and nitrogen footprint of agriculture. Nanotechnology offers several pathways to enhance BNF successfully.

Nanomedicines are complex drugs where components that have typically been regarded as excipients may now be considered part of the active ingredient. The distinction between the active ingredient and excipients for nanomedicines has important consequences for regulatory review and product development. The dissimilarity in the review of the recent ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based lipid nanoparticles highlights the need for further regulatory alignment on this topic.

High-energy electrons that collide at a beam splitter repel each other because of strong Coulomb interactions, which could be harnessed for quantum information processing.

Floatable hydrogel photocatalytic platform at the air–water interface features practical advantages for scale-up of solar H₂ production with light delivery, supply of water, and instantaneous gas separation.

Multidimensional synchrotron in operando studies of the electrode–electrolyte interface disclose the manganese dissolution and redeposition dynamics on the electrodes upon cycling.

A floatable photocatalytic platform made from a porous elastomer–hydrogel nanocomposite has been developed for converting solar energy into hydrogen fuel. This platform enables efficient light delivery, a facile supply of reactant and rapid product separation to achieve high hydrogen-evolution rates. Large-scale and seawater experiments indicate the potential for scale-up and practical application.

This Review discusses the latest theoretical progress related to exceptional points in non-Hermitian physics and the associated implications for emerging technologies in nanophotonics.

Collisions between two individual electrons in a quantum nanoelectronic circuit revealed a mutual interaction fully mediated by Coulomb repulsion—an essential building block for two-qubit logic implementations with flying electrons.

Coulomb forces between ballistic electrons are detected and analysed using a mesoscopic electron collider in an unscreened regime. Controlling Coulomb interactions on picosecond time scales is key for quantum logic devices with flying electrons.

Coincidence correlations between ballistic on-demand electrons passing through a mesoscopic beam splitter are measured and modelled to reveal signatures of unscreened Coulomb interactions, establishing a platform for quantum nonlinearity.

Strong intrinsic spin–orbit interaction unlocks the potential of circuit quantum electrodynamics with hole spins in silicon, resulting in strong spin–photon coupling of 300 MHz.

A Josephson junction with a weak link made from the chiral antiferromagnet Mn₃Ge can act as a spin-triplet supercurrent spin valve.

Floatable hydrogel nanocomposites, with facile intercalation of various photocatalysts, effectively produce hydrogen. The easily scalable nature of the nanocomposites demonstrates the practical application of this new type of photocatalytic platform.

A versatile hydrothermal approach in an operando acidic environment created ferromagnetic single-atom spin catalysts (SASCs). Ni-based SASC exhibits a giant magnetic field enhancement of OER activity, boosting both water and saline water electrolysis.

Ru nanoparticles on HZSM-5 catalysed solvent- and hydrogen-free upcycling of high-density polyethylene into a separable distribution of linear (C₁ to C₆) and cyclic (C₇ to C₁₅) hydrocarbons.

Reflection interference microscopy provides dynamic, non-invasive, operando imaging capabilities that enable the solid–electrolyte interphase formation and evolution of a battery to be mapped in real time with high sensitivity.

Operando synchrotron experiments reveal the Mn dissolution/redeposition dynamics in Mn-containing cathodes and offer insights into the regulation of Mn dissolution using ion-capturing polymers.

Protease profiling of the tumour microenvironment using DNA-barcoded nanosensors and CRISPR amplification enables portable cancer diagnosis in preclinical models.

RNA nanostructures can be designed to fold during transcription, but the solution structure has remained elusive. Here the authors use cryogenic electron microscopy to determine the structure of a panel of RNA origami shapes and uncover the design and folding principles.

Mechanically rigid and geometrically stable nano-scaffolds decrease intermembrane spacing at the immunological synapse, leading to the exclusion of tyrosine phosphatase CD45 protein and enhancement of T-cell signalling.